Dissociation, in chemistry, the breaking up of a compound into simpler constituents that are usually capable of recombining under other conditions. In electrolytic, or ionic, dissociation, the addition of a solvent or of energy in the form of heat causes molecules or crystals of the substance to break up into ions (electrically charged particles). Most dissociating substances produce ions by chemical combination with the solvent. The idea of ionic dissociation is used to explain electrical conductivity and many other properties of electrolytic solutions.

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...chemical properties of clusters are a combination of the properties of bulk and molecular matter. Several kinds of clusters, particularly those of the metallic variety, induce certain molecules to dissociate. For example, hydrogen molecules, H2, spontaneously break into two hydrogen atoms when they attach themselves to a cluster of iron atoms. Ammonia likewise dissociates when...

...Svante Arrhenius on the electrical conductivity of solutions, which contained the bold claim that salts, acids, and bases dissociate into electrically charged ions when dissolved in water. The dissociation theory eventually became a backbone of the new school of physical chemistry, whose members were initially known as the “Ionists” and who soon counted Arrhenius himself among...

...main contribution to physical chemistry was his theory (1887) that electrolytes, certain substances that dissolve in water to yield a solution that conducts electricity, are separated, or dissociated, into electrically charged particles, or ions, even when there is no current flowing through the solution. This radically new way of approaching the study of electrolytes first met with...